Publisher’s Porch: Back to the Routine

Welcome back to the porch.

It happens every August.

One day, summer still feels like it has plenty of time left. The next, school emails start arriving, fall sports practices are underway, school supplies are piled up on the kitchen table, and someone in the house is suddenly asking what time they actually have to go to bed on a school night.

Just like that, we start getting back into the routine.

For many families the next couple of weeks will be filled with that transition. Alarm clocks will get set a little earlier. Calendars will start filling up again. Parents will begin figuring out how to get one kid to practice while another needs to be somewhere else at exactly the same time.

And after a summer of vacations, late nights and days when nobody was quite sure what day of the week it was, there is something kind of nice about getting back into a rhythm.

Of course, the start of a new school year is about more than schedules.

For students, it means new teachers, new classes, reconnecting with friends and, for some, walking into a new school for the first time. For teachers, administrators, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and everyone else who keeps our schools running, it means another year of doing incredibly important work for the kids in the community.

And for parents, it means watching our kids take another step forward, whether we’re ready for it or not.

There is still some summer left, and I plan to enjoy as much of it as I can. But the backpacks are coming back out, practices have started and the calendar is beginning to look a lot less empty.

Ready or not, another school year is almost here.

To all of our students, families, teachers and school staff getting ready for it: enjoy these last few days of summer, and here’s to a great year ahead.

I’ll see you back on the porch next week.